On March 21, after a nine-day trial, a jury in the Northern District of Georgia ruled in favor of the SEC against a former registered representative of LPL Financial, LLC, and a firm he co-founded.

Statement of SEC Division of Enforcement Director Gurbir S. Grewal:

“We are pleased with the jury’s verdict holding former registered representative Jonathan Dax Cooke and the entity he co-founded, Keystone Capital Partners, Inc., known as Federal Employee Benefit Counselors, liable for fraudulently selling variable annuities to hundreds of federal employees who were at or near retirement age by falsely portraying himself and his company as counselors hired by the federal government to educate federal employees about their retirement benefits, and convincing them to roll over funds from their retirement accounts to fund the purchase of higher-fee variable annuity products. This verdict underscores our continuing efforts to protect investors, particularly those who are approaching retirement.”

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More information:

The SEC filed its civil complaint on July 31, 2017: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-135